Why do people build HTPC?

My HTPC can play bit perfect Blu Ray back ups (Legally with my Blu Rays) and Music using Jriver Media Center. If I want I can add Live TV to that from a multitude of software choices, I am not limited to Apple or anyone elses interpretation of what and how I consume my media It's a totally custom experience. I guess also ultimately it's a hobby too, like any thing out there though there are options to fill most peoples requirements.

One persons apple TV is another persons HTPC, my HTPC though is an HTPC.
 
Before I built a HTPC I used a VM V+ box for live and recorded TV and a PS3 to playback media stored on several NAS drives.

I didn't like the V+ STB, slow channel change, unable to remove channels I don't watch from EPG and the frequent crashes.

PS3 was picky about media format, no MKV or FLAC, web browser was poor and it was another device to turn on and another remote to hold.

The NAS (WD My Books) had slow file transfer speeds and setting share permissions was limited.

I had to use another PC / laptop to keep files between the NAS and backup locations in synch.

So I decided to combine all the above in to one box. I bought all parts used, mainly from the MM, except the HDDs and PSU.

I'm now running Windows 8 Media Centre with a DVB-S2 and 4x DVB-T2 tuners.
- Record more channels at once with storage limited by the number of drives I can fit in the case. No risk of losing the recordings if a STB crashes or dies.
- Plex for TV, Movies, online and home videos.
- Google Music, which copies any new music I add to my online collection making it instantly available to my phone, tablet and laptop.
- Google Drive, backs up all my important data and photos and giving me access from anywhere.
- Until recently SabNZB with Sickbeard etc. Adding downloads from my phone.
- Chrome web browser keeping my browsing activity in sync across my my devices and my 50" TV which is what I'm using now :)
- Noise, even with 6 HDDs it makes less noise than the V+ STB did.
 
Woden said:
I am planning to build myself a HTPC as I don't like the pre-builts. I want a freeview tuner or two and bluray.

Better not cost me much over £300.
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If you won't be playing games you don't need anything powerful which means you can pick up 2-3 year old hardware from the members market for cheap.

If it's going in the living room spend as much as you can on a nice looking case and the rest on a cheap bundle.
 
At a guess people use HTPC for games and storage of media and not simple to stream from another device, which any reasonable TV can do already.
 
kinobestew123 said:
To throw a curveball in there, Raspberry Pi as a HTPC?
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Tried this. Once you add all the extra peripherals the costs mount up and you end up with a pile of wires and bits in a mess.

What actually are the limitations of an AppleTV 2 running XBMC? Does it stream HD stuff over the network fine and all sorts...?
 
I think the main limitation is that it only streams up to 720p content. Also, only does Dolby 5.1 I think, no HD sound.
 
The main thing my HTPCs do is receive freeview & freesat HD, play 1080p, output HD audio and play blu-rays/hd-dvds (disks & straight rips) an ATV2 can do none of these.

I do have an ATV3 I use mainly for airplay, an airport express for my multiroom audio and a WDTV for the bedroom. The WDTV has a poor interface but has played every file I have tried.
 
I have a HTPC for the blu-ray drive. I have XBMC on it and I stream files from my HP microserver. I can play any format of video or audio with no restrictions which I have had in the past from things like WDTV. I was going to get an ATV and put XBMC on it but without a blu-ray drive it was usless to me
 
I went the custom build route so I can do and use the pc as I see fit - and it performs as an HTPC and a backup server too. I also don't know how to use Apple software that well, so it's familiarity as well as having more flexibility too. Furthermore, whilst I didn't spend more than £300, I know it can play everything I send at it, and still have expandability - the n40l has 4 bays, the next step is to get another one, or a big 4-disk NAS to synch/backup to.
 
I built an HTPC because I'd heard of loads of issues and various bugs with these media boxes. Any compatibility issues with an htpc can be resolved instantly, whether by upgrading hardware or using different codes, etc. Waiting for the manufacturers to release firmware upgrades would just frustrate me.

And a media box not streaming 1080p over the network? Fail.
 
apart from obviously playing media, my HTPC is also my media hub. So it contains 5TB storage, is my always on download box and run plex media server for various ios devices and for when I am out of the house.

That said, if all I was interested in was playing files then woudl probably opt for a wdtv and NAS
 
I struggled along with a WDTV Live for quite a while but I watch quite a bit of stuff with subtitles and it's support for these was just to basic.

Hence now I have HTPC's on the TVs in the house as it allows me to use more sophisticated software which does support everything I need. Personally I use Plex, as i prefer the way it's library is managed over XBMC, and run this on an old Mac Mini with data storage on a couple of NASes. The HTPCs run the Plex client software and I also have clients on iOS and Android devices.

My HTPCs have aren't used for other functions, e.g. data storage or downloads, as these are performed more power efficiently with the NASes and allow me to have smaller, quieter, machines hooked up to the TVs.
 
Most HTPCs are actually based around integrated boards like the Intel ION which is very low power, often passive with no fans at all and are much cheaper.

It just gives you complete functionality of a PC but on your TV. Its easier to set up than messign around jailbreaking an ATV, any shares or anything just works. Also, if im having trouble with a subtitle i just tab out of XBMC and fire up chrome and download the correct subtitle....this has happened a fair bit in the past few weeks with certain films only having full english not just forced subtitles etc. Can also manage my downloads etc from it (even though the DLs themselves are performed via my microserver), or even just sit and browse ocuk on my TV.

Full version of spotify just works properly too unlike any other implementation i've seen yet.

My HTPC cost me £150 for reference..
 
You can spend as little or as much as you want, really.

I'm using an old Core2Duo machine, but have recently swapped out the 8800GT with a 6950 - so that I can play some newer games on it at full resolution and max quality (my TV is 1920x1080, and the GF's machine which did have the 6950 only has a 1280x1024 screen, so made sense to swap them out)

I like the flexibility of being able to chop and change the skins, or even change the entire front-end software, and as I run all of mine on top of Windows - I've got the ability to do anything with them.
 
I'm most certainly one where i went overkill on mine. However a large amount of it (passive case, psu, blu ray drive) will last for many years of upgrades and i went for an Intel i3 3225 as it should be powerful enough to play 3D rips and all the more demanding skins for XBMC.

Its all running on Windows 8 so i can install whatever software i like on it to and because of the power it boots into Windows in about 8 second. Much faster than my old ATV2 could load up XBMC.

Especially when you consider the ATV2 can be sold for around £170 and then you can spend not a huge amount more on top for something which is much more future proof and capable, to me it made sense.
 
I decided to give up with my HTPC. I'd had various homebuilt HTPCs for many years but 6 months ago moved to a WDTVlive (with a USB attached drive). Found I was only really playing video/music files (as TV + STB did the rest) so this does everything I need. It is also silent, low power and I don't need to spend time maintaining or tinkering with it. Don't really miss the fancy skins etc. of XBMC as I prefer to spend my time watching the videos rather than the menus (also never want to see the spoiling synopisis/pictures anyway)! Also the WAF is higher.

I think though if it was my only source of content (or needed for gaming) I would still have one due to the flexibility and range.
 
For me my Win7 HTPC is everything in one box all under the same simple and rich content heavy interface, Live TV (including PVR), offline TV media, Movies and Music.

Name another single device that can do all this and at a cheaper price I'd be more than happy to switch.
 
Raymond Lin said:
Ok, I am a little bit confused here...

Intel i3 CPU is like £100, add in the rest of the stuff, i am going to guess you need at least £300 all in for the tower, or even more if you have no spare parts for things like keyboard or mouse.

Apple TV 2 (when it was on sale) was £99, JB and put on XBMC, point it at your files.

Same thing? Comes with remote, job done for 1/3 or 1/4 th of the price?

Or other media streamer like WD Live?

What am I missing?
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Audio quality. That's the main reason for me.

XBMC still can't play all 1080p files... especially when stuck on an apple tv, the hardware isn't fast enough.



The only thing that bugs me is sometimes playback can be a bit jerky... even with a little app that supposedly forces vsync.

Experiencing the video fluidity on MAC... I'm tempted to switch to a mac mini for my htpc needs - but then I'm going to have to re-invest in a decent external sound card too... maybe eventually - it's not that big of an annoyance to spend another grand or more just to smooth some video a bit.
 
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